The invention relates to coin dispensers, and in particular to coin dispensers of the type for dispensing change. Such coin change dispensers are found, for example, at cashier checkout locations and ticket booths and many other places.
Perhaps the best known type of coin change dispenser has an in-line configuration in which a plurality of generally upright coin holding tubes are aligned in a row. Examples of such coin change dispensers are shown, for example, in Walton, U.S. Pat. No. 3,590,833 and Duplessy, U.S. Pat. No. 4,593,709.
Such dispensers are assembled from numerous small, mechanical parts requiring many machining operations during manufacture, especially the parts of the coin ejector mechanisms. A coin dispenser having nine coin tubes would typically provide nine coin ejector mechanisms and each of these would include many small parts.
An additional problem in the art is the need to replenish the dispenser during the work shift. This requires reloading coinage and performing cash settlement operations in a back room to account for the coinage being dispensed and the coinage being received at a cash register.
Several patent documents have disclosed machines to receive, sort and dispense coins. In a published European patent application EP 0 137 637 published Apr. 17, 1985, coins are sorted into four tubes, from which coins may be dispensed. Generally, this is a large apparatus, resembling the in-line coin dispensers described above, and further having a ramp of complex design and many additional mechanical parts. Four tubes are disclosed for sorting and dispensing of more than four denominations. To handle additional denominations, more coin tubes and still more internal parts would have to be included.
On the other hand, there are some lightweight devices which combine sorting and dispensing as disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 5,106,337 and U.S. Des. Pat. No. 324,600. It appears that these devices would not handle the full coin set of any country without being enlarged. It is not clear that they would work well with a larger number of coin tubes or withstand heavy commercial use.
There is a need for a coin recycling dispenser that would receive, sort and dispense coins for a full coin set in busy cash handling locations. For global marketability, such a machine should be adaptable to the coin sets of many countries. Such a unit should have a relatively simple construction, and provide a lower manufacturing cost, and also be relatively compact in size.